Game Review: Still Here
Still Here created by StillHere is another game that is still in production, so the version I played on android was just a prototype, however it was already really well developed and glitch free. If you look in my earlier blogs, this was another inspiration for our game in terms of colour palette, art style and game style (collecting objects/flowers).
The goal of this game is to restore the maps of the world by going through each level and unlocking other parts of the world. To do so there are different types of puzzles - timed puzzles to get items, collecting parts for the robot who introduces you to the world and along the way of these puzzles, you collect flowers which unlocks other characters with different attributes.
This is quite similar to Little Big Planet and can be considered as a puzzle game due to the buttons and lever you had to press to open paths for your character just like Little Big Planet. The controls are simple, you drag your finger on the screen to control direction, and if you release the finger, your character will fall. The way you maneuver is by flying through the air on a jet pack which takes time to get used to due to the difficult turns. However this can be solved through progressing through the levels and getting accustomed to the UI or changing your character to another with better maneuvering abilities.
The art is amazing - the background is soft but still detailed and your character has a completely different colour palette with sharp lines that make it stand out to the player which makes it easy to control and move around. These bright colours and beautiful art would definitely attract younger audiences in particular.
The difficulty of each level varies with the type of puzzle. As always, timed puzzles prove to be the most difficult and it was the same with Still Here. Despite some difficulties, the game was still achievable and the level of difficulty increased in a good linear rate as players would become more skilled and understand the game more as it progressed. If the difficulty did not increase, it would be too easy and turn players away.
What did turn me away was the repetitiveness. The type of puzzle did vary and the layouts were very creative with different levers, nodes and objects to collect, however, the background and music was the same and the task was the same. Usually I don't mind playing puzzles with little variation as they do get more difficult but for some reason with this one, it didn't hook me in as well as the others. I thinks it was due to the fact that the character was a little hard to control which made the movements slower and I easily failed on the timed puzzles.
Nonetheless, it is a good play which gets your brain moving - how to do things, which way to go. The downsides are only my opinion, yours may and probably will differ. What I really do like about this game are outfits/different characters you get to play as and the layouts as they are ver creative and interesting. So give it a go!